The present invention relates to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus that makes possible ready checking, when setting the Doppler cursor or the angle cursor, of whether or not the Doppler cursor or the angle cursor is properly set.
Conventionally known ultrasound diagnostic apparatuses include one that displays on a monitor screen four 2D images resulting from the projection of a 3D (three-dimensional) image of a blood vessel in four projecting directions including the frontal, profile, overhead and oblique directions, lets the operator set the Doppler cursor (sample gate) while watching the displayed image, so sets the posture of a plane passing the Doppler cursor that a blood vessel is included in the plane and then set the angle cursor (correction line) on a 2D image of the plane (see, for instance, Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-95278 ([0069] through [0072]).
The conventional ultrasound diagnostic apparatus described above enables the operator to accurately set the Doppler cursor on a blood vessel, which is a three-dimensional structure, by using four 2D images. The setting of the angle cursor by the operator makes possible accurate 3D angle correction of the Doppler-measured flow rates.
However, it is necessary for the operator to compare the four 2D images to see whether the set Doppler cursor is not off the blood vessel, and this operation is not always easy. There is another problem of difficulty to make sure that the angle cursor is along the direction of the blood vessel.